Three masked gunmen held 25 people hostage at a bank in Naples, southern Italy, for approximately two hours on Thursday before escaping through a hole in the floor and into the city's sewer network. The robbery at a branch of Crédit Agricole — a French banking group with branches across Italy — took place in the Arenella district, on piazza Medaglie d'Oro, beginning at around 11:30am local time.

The robbers entered the bank and immediately locked customers, employees, and the branch manager in a room. "They were armed but they didn't use violence," one hostage said. Around 40 police officers, some accompanied by sniffer dogs, responded to the scene, while forensic teams dusted for fingerprints. Emergency responders ultimately smashed windows to gain entry to the building, by which point the perpetrators had already fled. Naples Prefect Michele di Bari confirmed that "all the hostages were freed shortly after 1:30pm, without serious injuries." Naples prosecutor Nicola Gratteri was also present at the scene.

According to a police source, the thieves made off with the contents of dozens of safe deposit boxes. When asked about the value of the stolen goods, the source acknowledged that "nobody but the clients knows what was in those boxes." The company managing Naples's water network was subsequently called in to inspect the sewer system through which the robbers escaped. It remains unclear whether any suspects have been identified or apprehended.

The audacious method bears a striking resemblance to a 2020 robbery at a Crédit Agricole branch in Milan, northern Italy, in which two armed robbers entered through the main entrance while accomplices crawled in via a maintenance hole through the sewer network. In that case, the gang escaped the same way, taking several safe-deposit boxes with them.

The Naples incident highlights the vulnerability of bank safe-deposit infrastructure to sophisticated, pre-planned attacks. The use of underground tunnels suggests significant prior reconnaissance, raising questions about how long the escape route may have been in preparation — and whether the same criminal network may be behind both the Naples and Milan operations.